"Par Baked" dough is a dough that is partially baked at the manufacturer's plant, packaged and sent to the end user, who then finishes ("bakes off") the baking and the browning of the bread or other bakery items such as cookies, bagels, croissants, etc.
Currently, the biggest market for par baked doughs is at commercial sites, (ie. retail bakeries, supermarket bakeries, restaurants, etc.) where the dough is `baked off` to provide the customer with fresh baked bread. The obvious advantage of the par baked doughs is that it provides the means to produce fresh baked products at locations who otherwise could not financially afford the equipment, time, space, and labor necessary to produce the dough product. Thus the success of par baked doughs has been dramatic and continues to grow rapidly.
Another market for par baked doughs is the consumer. The consumer can purchase the par baked dough and the finish baking the product at home. The par baked dough can be purchased by the consumer from the freezer or the from non frozen sections in the retail outlet.
One of the primary reasons that par baked dough has achieved it's success is that it does not require an investment in special equipment. The outlets using par baked doughs can utilize their `conventional` ovens to bake the product. Conventional ovens generally are ovens that a multitude of products (ie. bread, cakes, pies, cookies, etc.) can be baked in. These ovens are of different configurations for commercial or home use, but they all have an enclosed baking chamber wherein temperatures of approximately 500 degrees F. can be reached.
All of the par baked doughs currently in the marketplace have the following common characteristics;
1. Produced, formed, and partially baked at the manufacturing plant. PA1 2. The product is not browned or baked to the point of browning. PA1 3. They all can be baked off in `conventional` ovens thus requiring no additional investment of money, space, or time on the part of the end user. PA1 1. Pocket Pita Bread dough requires temperatures far exceeding the `conventional` oven temperature range in order to bake and brown properly. PA1 2. Pocket Pita Bread dough requires an oven where the heat source is in close proximity to the dough both on the bottom and the top of the oven. PA1 3. A financial investment would be required by those wanting to bake off fresh Pocket Pita Bread, (assuming that a preformed and ready to bake Pocket Pita Bread dough is available). PA1 (a) to provide a Pocket Pita Bread dough that can be baked off at any commercial bakery outlet to produce a fresh, high quality Pocket Pita Bread for the customer. PA1 (b) to provide a Pocket Pita Bread dough that can be baked off at any fooservice or restaurant outlet to produce a fresh, high quality Pocket Pita Bread for the customer. PA1 (c) to provide a Pocket Pita Bread dough that can be baked off at the home of the consumer to produce a fresh, high quality Pocket Pita Bread. PA1 (d) to provide a Pocket Pita Bread dough that can be baked off at any commercial bakery outlet to produce a fresh, high quality Pocket Pita Bread wherein the commercial bakery outlet can utilize it's existing conventional equipment to achieve the final product. PA1 (e) to provide a Pocket Pita Bread dough that can be baked off at any foodservice or restaurant outlet to produce a fresh, high quality Pocket Pita Bread wherein the foodservice or restaurant outlet can utilize it's existing conventional equipment to achieve the final product. PA1 (g) to provide a Pocket Pita Bread dough that can be baked off at the home of the consumer to produce a fresh, high quality Pocket Pita Bread wherein the consumer can utilize their existing home kitchen appliances, including but not limited to their microwave oven, to achieve the final product. PA1 (a) preparing Pocket Pita Bread dough and shaping the dough into the desired preform; PA1 (b) proofing the preformed Pocket Pita Bread dough to a desired thickness that equals approximately 1.5 to 3 times the original thickness of the preform; PA1 (c) partially baking, or partially baking and partially browning, or partially baking and fully browning the preform dough; and PA1 (d) freezing the partially baked product.
At present, although par baked dough is being produced for a wide range of bakery products, `Pocket Pita Bread` is not one of them. The reasons for this are as follows;
Allthough conventional oven temperature ranges can bake Pita Bread, the time required to complete baking and browning at these temperatures is excessive and results in a poor and/or unacceptable product.
Most `conventional` ovens incorporate either a bottom heat source, a top heat source, and/or a convectional heat source (this method bakes by a forced flow of hot air around the product) Most of these `conventional` ovens now in use in the marketplace do not have the top and bottom heat source working in tandem together as is required to bake quality Pocket Pita Bread properly.
In order to achieve a quality Pocket Pita Bread from the dough stage, the user would either have to purchase a new oven that is designed for Pocket Pita Bread, or retrofit their existing equipment, if possible, to accomodate the Pocket Pita Bread dough.
Pocket Pita Bread has grown in popularity in the United States, especially in the last decade. But still the sales are insignificant when compared to sales of other bread products (ie. bagels, tortillas, croissants, etc.) that have achieved rapid growth over the same period of time. The American consumer, as like any consumer in the world market, does not appreciate a bread product that does not have the `freshness` characteristics inherent in the taste of the bread. An authentic, high qualilty Pocket Pita Bread has a very lean recipie whose `freshness` characteristics may last one day at best. The ability of the consumer to purchase fresh Pocket Pita Bread is diminished by the fact that there are very few bakeries that produce fresh Pocket Pita Bread where the consumer can go on a regular basis. Also, the present mass merchandising of Pocket Pita Bread in the United States requires a `shelf life` of anywhere from three days to three weeks. Thus the consumer generally receives a product which has already lost it's freshness quality. The obvious result being Pocket Pita Bread not realizing it's real market potential.
Thus, it would be desirable to prepare a Pocket Pita Bread dough that the end user simply needs to `bake off` in order to provide a fresh and quality Pocket Pita Bread both in a commercial and in a home environment. It would also be desirable to produce a Pocket Pita Bread dough that the end user can simply `bake off` in order to provide a fresh and quality Pocket Pita Bread, without the investment of labor, time, space, and expense in special equipment. The present invention provides such a product, as well as a process for the manufacturing of this product.